Editorial: Let fear not become the driving force

Fear can cause us to react and perform greater than par but that is often the exception not the rule. Around the world people are living in fear and letting that underlying emotion drive their decisions.

Pragmatic thinking and planning can be critical in ensuring the safety of our community amidst a global outbreak of the COVID-19 Coronavirus. Let fear not be our guide but let calm and logic prevail.

Our local public health officials and medical practitioners have been dispensing quality advice that should be heeded (www.hsa.ky/coronavirus).

Images of panic buying of cleaning and disinfecting supplies elsewhere have become a reality on these shores in recent days even though we have been advised that some of the same procedures we should employ daily outside of an outbreak are the same ones for times like this.

Frequent hand washing, covering our noses and mouths when coughing or sneezing, and avoiding contact with people who have symptoms are tips we share with our children when they start school to avoid the common cold and the flu, yet panic has now set in at a time when cool heads should prevail.

Our message is not to take the necessary steps to protect ourselves from what has been growing into a global pandemic. It will quite likely reach these shores but as noted motivational speaker Simon Sinek has pointed out “panic causes tunnel vision” whereas “calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.”